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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24002461">Help Is Far Away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Current521/pseuds/Current521'>Current521</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, aliens are here, lex is in peip</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:08:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,765</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24002461</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Current521/pseuds/Current521</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Paul wakes up with the military. He and a teenage girl are sent to rescue Emma and get to the evac chopper.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Help Is Far Away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Basically canon except Lex is in peip and gets sent with Paul to rescue Emma, which changes things somewhat. Everything follows canon exactly up until the beginning. Why is Lex in peip? Honestly, who even knows, Paul sure doesn't. She just is. She has a gun. It's a stressful time for him.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Paul came to consciousness slowly, blinking awake. He was sitting. "Sorry for the knock on the head, son, you can never be too careful." Paul looked; the voice belonged to a man in a military uniform. "What's your name son?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Paul," Paul replied automatically. "Matthews."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Paul. My name is General John McNamara of the United States military, special unit PEIP, we call it peip."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Peip? I've never heard of you guys." Paul blinked a few more times, looking around; he was in a makeshift office, alone but for the general and a teenage girl standing in the corner, arms crossed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The general coughed. "And you never will. Not a peep." The girl rolled her eyes. "That's a joke, son. Our department has the unenviable task of cleaning up messes of a certain nature, situations not unlike what we have here in Hatchetfield."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl pushed off from the walk and walked towards them. "Do you have to do that same speech every time, John?" She looked at Paul. "Lex Foster. Hatchetfield native and local member of peip."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>General McNamara looked at the girl — Lex — for a moment and then turned back to Paul. "I've got a bit of bad news for ya, son. Our unit was sent to make a clean sweep of the island, no survivors."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That caught Paul's attention. "Wait, so you're just gonna kill me?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Those are my orders, yes. Two in the head, one in the heart." General McNamara gestured to Paul's forehead and then to his chest. "But there's one thing you better hurry up and know about me, Paul. I love my country, I do, but the experiences I've accrued throughout my tenure with this organisation—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What John is trying to say," Lex interrupted, "Is that you're gonna survive. We can't stay here, those singing maniacs are gonna get here soon."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>General McNamara glared at Lex for a moment. "You shouldn't mouth off to your superiors."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You shouldn't be so damn cryptic, John, just let's move."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Right." He looked at Paul. "We're gonna bend the rules for you a little bit, son. We've got an evac chopper touching down in Oakley Park at 2300 hours, synchronise your timepiece with mine."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Not necessary," Lex said, but she didn't make any move to elaborate, so Paul pulled out his phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Is that an iPhone?" General McNamara stared at it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, it's a 6S, it's—" Paul was interrupted by General McNamara taking his phone and throwing it across the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Wear a watch!" He looked annoyed. "Time is a precious thread in the fabric of the universe, it deserves its own tool of measurement."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Relax John." Lex rolled her eyes, then looked at Paul. "Anyway, stay alive, get to the chopper at 2300 hours, we'll get the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> out of this town."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Wait." Paul sat up straighter. Lex — who he was pretty sure he'd seen around town, and who couldn't be more than 20, if that — was almost more unnerving than General McNamara, who was extremely unnerving. "I can't leave without Emma."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>McNamara sighed. "Who's Emma, Paul?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"She's…" He didn't know how to describe her. "She's a friend."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Friends don't move my heart, son, is there a chance at something more?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I…" </span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, </span>
  </em>
  <span>was what he wanted to say. "I'd like there to be. No, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>there to be."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Then you know what this means." McNamara drew a gun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm authorising you to use my forearm." He offered the hilt of the gun to Paul. "Rescue Emma and get your ass to that chopper in two hours' time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"John, you can't do that!" Lex stepped forward. "This dude's a complete stranger! You can't just hand him a gun. I'll go with him, keep him alive." Lex put a hand on her hip, or more specifically, on the gun Paul now realised was on her hip. "We'll be fine."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Still." McNamara pushed Lex aside and handed the gun to Paul, who took it carefully. "Lex is right. She'll escort you. Rescue Emma and get your ass to that chopper in two hours' time." He did a salute. "Godspeed, son."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uh, thanks." Paul awkwardly pocketed the gun, and looked at Lex. "So—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Let's go." Lex pushed past him to the door, then stopped and looked at him. "Ground rule; no talking unless necessary, and absolutely no singing."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Ugh." It might be a bad time, but Paul's hatred of musicals resurfaced. "I hate musicals."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Good." Lex grinned. "Lead the way, where's this Emma girl?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uh, this way." Paul, suddenly realising where they were — still at the high school — began making his way back towards the professor's.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lex took his gun from his pocket moments after they were out of sight of the school. "You're holding that all wrong, it's stressful." She tucked it into an empty holster under her jacket. "This one," she said, gesturing to the gun on her belt, "Is well within reach for you. Grab it if necessary."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Paul stared at her for a few seconds. "How old are you?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"18."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're a </span>
  <em>
    <span>kid</span>
  </em>
  <span>! Why is a kid lecturing me on guns?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Because this kid knows how to hold one, now shut up and walk, we don't want those things finding us."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Paul wanted to argue that they weren't </span>
  <em>
    <span>things</span>
  </em>
  <span>, they were people, but then he remembered how Charlotte and Sam had looked before Hidgens shot them, and suddenly, he wasn't so sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made their way to Hidgens' fortress in silence. Lex kept one hand on her gun the entire time, and Paul made sure to stay close enough to grab the one off her belt, even though he wasn't entirely sure why she didn't just let him have it. Or why he was taking orders from a teenager. Or why the teenager in question even had a gun in the first place. Was she military too? She'd said that, hadn't she?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made it to the fortress and were headed towards the room where Paul had left the others when Lex held out a hand to stop him. "I hear singing," she whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Singing. From that room." She pointed at the door at the end of the hall. Then she handed Paul a gun. "We might get lucky."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"How many people did you leave here?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uhh, Emma and the professor and… And Ted! Three."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Three, okay." Lex seemed to count something in her head. "How good of a shot are you?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She rolled her eyes. "Shot. With a gun. I haven't had time to practice as much as I should."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uh, I don't—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Okay, fine. Try not to kill anyone who's still human, aim for the head on the ones who aren't, and if you hit me, I might just hit you, okay?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Okay. Okay. Okay." Unbidden, the image of Charlotte with her guts hanging out entered his mind, along with the uncomfortable way she'd crumbled when shot. "Okay."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Shut up. We're going in." Lex led the way down the hall. She gestured for Paul to wait as she had a hand on the knob. "On three," she mouthed. "One, two, three." She pushed the door open and went in, gun first. Paul followed, holding up his own gun, trying to take in the scene before he shot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emma and Ted were tied to a couple of chairs, both of them screaming. Hidgens was on the floor, dead, a bullet through his forehead; only then did it completely register to Paul that he'd heard a gunshot when Lex first opened the door, and that it had cut off the singing. There was a piano against the opposite wall, but no one seemed to pay it much mind; Hidgens was several steps away, crumbled on the floor the way Charlotte and Sam had been.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What the fuck! What the fuck!" Ted's voice, raw with fear, pulled Paul out of his shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's fine, it's fine, it's just me." He went over to loosen first Emma's and then Ted's restraints. "We need to hurry. Lex, how much time do we have?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She checked her watch, an oversized men's watch that she didn't look halfway as comfortable with as she did the gun she was still holding. "Not long," she replied. "Let's go. Those two human?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, uh, who the fuck are you?" Emma had stood up and was staring at Lex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Hi, Lex Foster, United States military, special unit PEIP, we call it peip. We're here to save your asses, but it's now 10.25 and the chopper takes off at 11, so let's go." She clapped her hands and headed to the door, then turned back. "Paul? Gun." She held out her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uh, I don't think—" Ted began.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Shut up, you don't have the authority here. Gun."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Paul handed her the gun, honestly kind of glad to be rid of it. "Yeah, I guess— Yeah."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Let's go." Lex turned back to the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn't say another word, just led the way outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What the fuck Paul?" Ted said after they'd been walking for a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Okay, ground rules, no talking," Lex whispered before Ted had a chance to reply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm not taking orders from a teenager," Ted protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes," Lex whispered back. "You are. Because I am a military representative and I also have two guns and no qualms about shooting you and leaving you behind if you're gonna be causing a fuss. So you whisper or you die."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Shit." Ted looked at Paul. "This girl is fucking nuts."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"She saved us," Emma whispered. "The professor was gonna let those aliens have us."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Whatever. What the fuck is happening Paul?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm not sure. But there's a helicopter coming and—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Fuck!" Lex held up her hand to stop them. "Fuck."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What's up?" Paul went up next to her, and that's when he saw it. Military. "What's the problem?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Look at them." Lex gestured. "They're dancing."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Paul looked closer. It just looked like marching to him, but he supposed Lex would know better. "What does this mean for the chopper?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I don't know, but we still have to get there."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"There's something I need to say," Ted piped up from behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Not now," Emma hissed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes now."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lex pointed a gun at him. "Not. Now. It's 10.52, we need to haul ass. Let's go."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She led the way, around the military unit, and towards the park. No one said another word, but when Paul glanced back, Ted was notably paler. Having a gun pointed at you would do that, he guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made it to the chopper. They didn't make it further than that.</span>
</p>
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